Strike plate



Dec. 29, 1936.. w. PEACE STRIKE PLATE Filed Feb. 6, 1955'v VVK/[iam Peace www Patented Dec. 29, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

'Ihis invention relates to strikers or keepers for door latches, and has particular reference to an adjustable striker.

It has been proposed to provide strike plates or keepers for door latches with latch engaging members which are adjustable in order to eliminate rattling of the door. These proposed arrangements, as far as I am aware, have not proved satisfactory in practice because they are more or less complicated, expensive to manufacture, dilicult to adjust, and materially detract from the appearance.

The aim of the present invention is to provide an improved adjustable striker wherein the above and other disadvantages and objections incident to adjustable strike plates heretofore proposed are substantially eliminated or, at least, reduced to a In accordance with the present invention, I provide a very highly practical arrangement which may be manufactured at a relatively low cost, which may be readily installed practically without any more work than is necessary in applying the usual non-adjustable one-piece strike plate, which may be very quickly and readily adjusted without Special tools and by unskilled persons so as to hold the door against rattling when the door is closed, and which presents as pleasing and neat an appearance as the usual onepiece strike plate.

A further aim of the invention is to provide an improved arrangement of the character described Which may be applied with equal facility and without change, to either a left-hand or right-hand door, thus eliminating the necessity of carrying in stoc'k diiferently constructed parts to meet various requirements.

Astill further aim of the invention is to provide an improved striker with an adjustable meinber adapted to be positioned so that the latch engaging portion thereof will extend beyond the exposed face of the main strike plate, this arrangement being of advantage in the event the door should shrink to such an extent that the latch would not properly engage in its opening in the main plate.

Other objects will be in part obvious, and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the application of which vwill be indicated in the appended claims,

In the accompanying drawing wherein I have shown, for illustrative purposes one embodiment which the present invention may take,

Fig. 1 is a front vieW of the striker 'as applied n to a door jamb;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same taken on line 2--2 of Fig. 1, a portion of thev door and the latch being shown in dotted lines;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the adjustable member of the striker in position with a portion thereof extending beyond the exposed or front face of the main plate;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of the several parts of the striker; and

Fig. 5 is an edge View of the striker and the associated portion of the door jamb.

Referring to the drawing in detail, I designates a door jamb having the usual latch opening II and recess I2 for respectively receiving the latch bolt 8 and lock bolt (not shown) of the lock with which the door 9 is provided. The door jamb about these openings is countersunk as at I in the usual manner so that the exposed face of the main strike plate is iiush with the surface of the door jamb. These recessesv and the countersink-are the same as those usually'formed from one-'piece strike plates except that the latch opening II is somewhat enlarged at its outer side and the portion I5 of the countersink is of somewhat increased depth, for purposes hereinafter described.

The main strike plate I6 is of the usual construction except that, in the present instance, Ait

Vis provided with an additional screw opening Il.

The strike plate has openings I8 and I9 adapted to respectively register with the vlatch opening II and recess I2 'of the door jamb, and has the usual tongue against which the cam `face of the latch is adapted to engage when the door is swung to closed position. Adjacent the op-` posite ends of the strike plate are openings 2| adapted to accommodate the usual attaching screws 22 whereby the strike plate is secured tc the jamb. The opposite ends of the openings 2l are charnfered or countersunk, as illustrated, so that irrespective of4 which face is against the door jamb the heads of the securing screws will not extend beyond the exposed face of the strike plate. The opening I 'l is located at the base of the tongue and to the side of the opening I8, and it is countersunk at each end.

The numeral 25 designates a nut which in the present instance is in theform of an elongated block of rectangular or square cross section. It

has a centrally disposed threaded aperture 26.

It is observed that the nut may be very cheaply constructed from bar stock. The adjustable latch engaging member of the striker is designated generally by the numeral 30 and, in the present instance, it comprises a right-angled piece of sheet metal. The same has a base or attaching portion 3l, and a lip or latch engaging portion 32 disposed at right angles to, and of slightly less vertical length than, the base 3L By preference, the vertical length of the attaching portion is substantially coextensive with the tongue 20, and the latch engaging portion 32 is of slightly less vertical length than the length of the opening I8 so that the tongue may project through that opening, as shown in Fig. 3. The attaching portion 3| is provided with a transverse slot 33 through which the stem of a screw 34 is adapted to extend.

The manner in which the parts are assembled is clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. From these figures, it will be observed that the nut 25 is positioned against the outer edge of the latch opening H in the door jamb, and the attaching portion of the member 30 is interposed between the nut and the strike plate I6. The attaching portion is located, at least in part, in the countersink I5 which leads to the outer edge of the door jamb. When it is desired to adjust the member 30 in order to take up the loose play of the door when the latter is closed, the screw 34 is untightened just enough to permit adjustment of the member 30 while maintaining pressure on the attaching portion between the nut and the rear face of the strike plate. The door will now be closed against the door stop 35 and held there, while the member 30 is adjusted so that the lip 32 engages the outer face of the latch. This may be done by applying the tip of a screw driver S or other tool to the outer end of the attaching portion (as shown in Fig. 2) and then pushing on the tool. The latch may now be very gently withdrawn so as not to disturb the adjusted member 30, and the door is opened. Then the screw 34 is tightened up so as to securely hold the member 3l) in the position to which it has been adjusted. When the door is again closed, it will, of course, be held against rattling because the door will be in engagement with the stop 35 when the latch is in engagement with the lip 32. It is obvious that the desired adjustment of the striker may be very easily accomplished by unskilled persons. In the event that the door should shrink so that the latch when projected, as shown in Fig. 3, would not properly engage the strike plate I6, the member 30 may be reversed from the position shown in Fig. 2 to that shown in Fig. 3. In this latter position, the latch engaging portion 32 projects through the opening I8 and forms, in effect, an extension behind which the latch may engage.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, it will be observed that my improved striker comprises a relatively few number of parts each of which is of simple character and, therefore, my improved arrangement may be manufactured and sold at a relatively low cost. My improved arrangement may be applied to one-piece strike plates as heretofore constructed, it being merely necessary to drill the additional hole l1 in such strike plates. A strike plate constructed in accordance with the present invention requires but very little more time and labor to install than the usual one-piece strike plate, and the installation mayr be very quickly and easily accomplished without requiring the services of a mechanic. Requirements for left-hand or right-hand strikers may be supplied from a single stock.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely diiferent embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. An adjustable striker having a flat faced reversible strike plate provided with a latch bolt receiving opening and a screw receiving opening at one side of the latch bolt receiving opening, a right angled sheet metal adjustable latch bolt engaging member having an attaching portion lying atwise against the rear face of said strike plate and a latch bolt engaging lip disposed at right angles to the plane of the strike plate, said lip being of lesser length than said latch bolt receiving opening so as to extend therethrough, said attaching portion having a slot in registry with said screw receiving opening, a nut engaging against the rear face of said attaching portion, and a screw extending through said screw receiving opening and slot and into said nut for clamping said attaching portion between said strike plate and nut.

2. An adjustable striker for engaging a latch bolt to secure a door in closed position comprising a reversible strike plate having duplicate opposed fiat faces, a latch bolt receiving opening therein and a laterally protruding tongue in the plane of said plate and adjacent to said opening, a right angled adjustable latch bolt engaging member having a flat attaching portion lying against the under side of the tongue and a lip portion integrally secured to the attaching portion and projecting through the opening perpendicularly to the faces of the strike plate, a transverse slot within the attaching portion, a nut frictionally engageable with the attaching portion and a screw passing through the tongue and slot and received by said nut whereby the latch bolt engaging member may be slidably positioned relative to the strike plate and clamped in required adjusted position.

3. An adjustable striker having a at reversible strike plate provided with opposed flat faces, a latch bolt receiving opening through said plate, and a screw receiving opening at the sida of said latch receiving opening, said screw receiving o-pening being countersunk at each end; an adjustable bolt engaging member having a laterally projecting lip perpendicularly disposed to the opposed strike plate faces and provided with an attaching portion adapted to lie fiatwise against either of said opposed faces, said attaching portion being provided with a slot registering with the screw receiving opening, a nut engaging against the rear face of the attaching portion, and a screw extending through the screw receiving opening and slot and received by said nut.

4. An adjustable striker having a reversible strike plate provided with opposed flat faces, a

latch bolt receiving opening extending through the plate, and a screw receiving opening adjacent the latch receiving opening, said screw receiving opening being countersunk at its opposite ends, an adjustable but reversible latch bolt engaging member having a laterally projecting lip disposed at right angles to the opposed strike plate faces, an attaching portion on said member provided with opposed flat faces, either 10 of which is adapted to lie against the rear face of eithen of the opposed strike plate faces, said attaching portion being provided with a slot registering With the screw receiving opening, a nut engaging the rear face of said attaching portion, and a screw received Within one of said countersunk portions and extending through the screw receiving opening and slot and received by said nut.

WILLIAM PEACE. 

